She Read My Book
by Elianna.Grey
Summary: Riley Poole has lived in the shadow of Ben Gates ever since the Templar Treasure under trinity church and with the added fame of discovering The City Of Gold, Riley's feelings and personal life seem to have been forgotten by everyone except him. Riley/OC
1. Prologue

**I'm Back! I needed some respite from studying for exams so I decided to write something. I watched both of the National Treasure films again the other day and totally fell in love with Riley all over again! He's just so adorable! So here we go the beginning of my Riley/Oc story, She Read My Book.**

**Enjoy!**

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Opening the door to the coffee shop her long rusty red hair was swept into her face by the wind in its final attempt to unsettle her. She rubbed her fingerless mitten covered palms together trying to get some warmth back to her hands. Her face flushed with the sudden rush of heat as she made her way to the counter to order a much needed hot chocolate, rummaging around in her large messenger bag as she walked.

"Can I get a tall house hot chocolate to go please?" she asked the young man behind the counter politely. She gave him her name before taking a seat in a plush armchair beside the window with a great view of the city street outside. She loved to watch the city move, people going about their business, the general hustle and bustle.

Retrieving a notebook and green-coloured pen from her bag she popped an ear-bud in her right ear and turned on the low hum of her iPod as she began to write. She had gotten through half a page when her name was called to collect her drink and she reluctantly packed up and left the comfort of the armchair.

She smiled as the teenage girl handed her the steaming hot drink and thanked her before going back to her bag to try and locate her phone. She walked as she searched, skilfully navigating her way through the small shop. Or so she thought.

Suddenly she had bumped into someone and was on her way towards the hard ground. She braced herself for the impact, her eyes shut tightly, waiting for the inevitable. But it never came, she cracked open her eyes slowly and was met with a pair of shining blue orbs. The owner of the bright eyes was looking down at her with an awkward look on his face and she quickly recovered from her slight bout of shock.

"Oh my god! I am so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was walking and I didn't see you! Thank you so much for catching me though, you really didn't have to. I really can't tell you how sorry I am! Did I spill your coffee? I'll buy you another! What did you have?"

He chuckled a little at her rambling as she righted herself and put up a hand to stop her, "Don't worry about it. I didn't have a drink and I couldn't just let you fall. Besides I wasn't exactly paying attention either."

It was then she noticed the brown stain slowly spreading on his white shirt under the black blazer he wore, she looked down to see her hot chocolate on the floor in a messy puddle. Her eyes widened as she looked back at him and opened her mouth to speak. He cut off her apology before it even began.

"Don't worry about it I'm on my way home anyway, ten minutes won't make too much of a difference." He said and bent down to pick up his own messenger bag that had fallen to the ground.

"Oh I feel terrible! Your being way to nice you know," she told him, sweeping her hair out of her icy grey eyes with her right hand, "any other guy would probably be yelling at me for being an airhead or something..."

"I'm not a yeller, I'm sorry for spilling your drink though." He replied looking at her shyly, a slight blush tinting his cheeks.

"Oh it's not a problem really," she looked down to see that an employee had already cleared up the mess whilst they had been talking, "you should probably get home or that stain will stick."

"Yeah." He replied awkwardly as they both made their way to the door.

She pulled her knit coat tight around her before giving him a nod and a smile as they each turned to walk in opposite directions. She was a few paces away when she heard him call out, "Wait!"

Turning around she saw him jogging back up to where she was, "I don't usually do things like this, ever, but I was wondering if I could get your number and maybe give you a call sometime? I mean technically I do owe you a drink and it's ok if you don't want to, feel free to tell me to get lost, it is a little forward of me..." he trailed off with a blush on his cheeks, his baby blues full of apprehension as he waited for her to reply.

Shocked at his question she stood for a moment thinking over his words before blinking quickly and nodding in reply, "Uh, yeah... sure..."

After spending a few minutes swapping numbers awkwardly they nodded their goodbyes and turned back in the direction they were headed before. Once again she was stopped by him calling her back.

"I never got your name..." he said.

"Oh! I'm Aimee." She told him with a chuckle, a dimple appearing on the left side of her mouth as she smiled widely.

"Riley."

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**I know it's short but I'll try to get some longer chapters out as soon as I can.**

**Reviews make the world go round so stop an international incident and click the lovely green button!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Elianna Grey.**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi! Sorry it's taken a while to get this up. I've been swamped with exam stuff lately. I took the night off to relax and catch my breath so I wrote this. Its short and definitely not my best work but I wanted to get something out so here it is!**

**Thanks to ruby890 and Seren for reviewing the first chapter! I'm glad you guys liked it! I'm happy to see Riley with a girl too.**

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Aimee rushed into her apartment as she heard the phone ringing, she dropped her keys and her bag as she went and sighed when the phone stopped and her answering machine kicked in. Kneeling down to right her large bag she closed the door and listened to the message.

_"Hi, you've reached Aimee. Obviously I'm not in right now but leave a message or your details and I'll get back to you soon!"_

_"Miss Montgomery? This is Dr. Abigail Chase from the National Archives. I acquired your number from Agent Peter Sadusky he told me I could probably use your area of expertise... Erm, If you could maybe give me a call back at the Archives as soon as you can I'd like to meet with you. Thanks."_

Aimee quirked an eyebrow at the machine from where she knelt on the floor beside her bag. Agent Sadusky? She hadn't seen him in months. Her area of expertise? In the National Archives? That was unexpected. She sighed again as she stood and heard her knees crack, she would call this Doctor Chase tomorrow.

Dropping her bag on the sofa she made her way to the kitchen and filled the kettle, she had just flipped the switch when her phone pinged with a new message. Grabbing it from her bag she smiled when she looked at the screen.

**_1 new message: _**

**_Think I might have to buy a new shirt..._**

**_Riley._**

She let out a slight laugh before texting back and dropping her phone into her pocket and returning to make her cup of tea.

**_Ten minute walks can do that._**

**_Aimee._**

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Riley smiled to himself as he sat on the counter-top in the kitchen of his own apartment, shirtless and following the white blob whirling quickly around the washing machine on the opposite side of the room.

**_Indeed but I think the pro's of the_**

**_situation greatly outweigh the con's._**

**_-R._**

He hopped off the counter and made his way to his bedroom picking up a random shirt from the chair there and throwing it on before walking back to the kitchen and opening the fridge to look for something to eat. His phone vibrated on the small table behind him notifying him to a new message.

**_1 new message:_**

**_How so?_**

**_-A._**

Riley chuckled and replied swiftly.

**_Losing a shirt versus meeting a pretty girl..._**

**_No contest._**

**_-R._**

Riley couldn't believe how confident he was acting, he supposed it had to do with the fact that he wasn't talking to her face to face. He smiled to himself at the thought of the pretty redhead he had literally bumped into earlier that day.

**_I have a confession..._**

**_-A._**

Riley's smile fell slightly at that, she had a confession? What did that mean? Was she married with kids? A serial killer? He didn't have much time to contemplate these questions as his phone binged again signalling another message.

**_I know who you are. Riley Poole._**

**_I loved your book..._**

**_-A._**

Riley was shocked at that. He stood stock still in front of the open fridge staring at the phone in his hand. He must have been standing there for longer than he thought as another text came through.

**_Have I freaked you out now?_**

**_I'm not a stalker I swear, I only realised it_**

**_was you after I got home and saw the book _**

**_on the table..._**

**_-A._**

Riley's face suddenly split into a wide grin as he quickly typed in a text and clicked send. He was shocked but not freaked out. He was not expecting that at all. Shaking his head a few times he closed the fridge and sat at the table.

"She read my book..." he whispered to himself.

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**A/N: Sorry If that disappointed you guys, the next one will be better.**

**It might get redone sometime soon if I have the time.**

**Stay Tuned.**

**Elianna Grey.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Note:**

_Wow._

_ It's been over a year! I am so sorry! Before I get to the excuses I just want to thank all the people who reviewed since the last update (all those decades ago) and all those who put this story on alert! I really do appreciate you guys! Now for my (not good enough) excuses as to why it's taken this long to update. _

_I started college. When I started I had planned to keep writing as much as I could and I really wanted to be able to regularly update this story but I just got so busy and then whenever I started writing I felt it wasn't getting my whole attention so it wasn't anything I felt was good enough to post. I'm on summer holidays now and I'll try and post as much as I can to make up for it!_

_This chapter I feel moves pretty fast because I really wanted to actually get into it and not just be giving background and small details and stuff. With this chapter out of the way the details and stuff should return and it should be back on track. Again sorry for the really (exceptionally) long wait!_

_Hope you guys enjoy…_

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"Hi, this Aimee Montgomery I was hoping to speak with Doctor Chase? She requested I call her as soon as possible." Aimee spoke pleasantly to the receptionist who answered her call to the national archives the next morning.

She was walking through her apartment in her pyjamas picking things up and tidying them into their rightful places with a sort of nervousness, she wasn't very confident talking to people on the phone and fidgeting seemed to be a given whenever she was tasked with an important call. But the receptionist was a nice woman who informed her that Doctor Chase had just arrived and she would forward the call straight to her office.

"Good morning this is Doctor Abigail Chase speaking." was instantly heard from the other end of the line.

"Good morning Doctor Chase this is Aimee Montgomery returning your call from yesterday. You said you got my number from Agent Sadusky so I gather the matter is quite important."

"Oh hello Miss Montgomery! Yes Agent Sadusky suggested I give you a call when we spoke last, I have a somewhat delicate situation that he said you may be able to help with. We found something we would like you to possibly identify but it needs to be kept on the down low if you please."

"I had wondered why on earth the national archives would need me but from listening to you know I suppose it's one of those things I'm good identifying, no?" Aimee replied, she enjoyed the cryptic messages she and the doctor were sharing, it was making this call extremely interesting to her.

"Yes, and you can see why Agent Sadusky suggested you for the job. We need this to be discrete, the authorities have no idea yet… other than Sadusky."

"Well Doctor Chase you've got me interested in this now so I have no problem offering you my assistance. Tell me when and I'll help you any way I possibly can."

"Would it be possible for you to come to the archives today Miss Montgomery? As you could probably tell we would like to get this done as quickly as we can."

"I can be at the archives in about an hour if that suits you? You're lucky you caught me on a day where I have little to nothing to do." Aimee was getting excited now as she walked quickly through the living room of her apartment to the large bedroom and started pulling clothes from the wardrobe, trying to find something to wear.

"That would be great Miss Montgomery I will call my colleagues involved and we shall all see you then!" Doctor Chase sounded relieved that Aimee would be able to help her so quickly and promptly hung up the phone, to call her associates Aimee supposed.

Finally deciding - after ten minutes - that she didn't really need to impress these people as they were the ones looking for her help Aimee chose to wear an old Ramones shirt under a black blazer with rolled up cuffs accompanied by jeans and her favourite pair of black converse. She hopped in the shower and got ready before making the twenty minute walk to the national archives and making it there just under the hour mark.

She walked into the entrance and was amazed by the building she had stepped into. It really was an archive of nearly every important American document ever heard of. She was surrounded by tourists and kids on school trips as she made her way through the mass of people to the front desk.

"Hi there! How can I help you today?" the overly cheery attendant asked her as she stapped up to the desk.

"Hey, I'm here to see Doctor Chase? She's expecting me."

"Let me see now," the smiling woman said before tapping away at the computer keyboard in front of her, "Oh yes! Miss Montgomery is it? Well this says to just send you straight on down to her office so you know what I'll get someone to take you down there right now!"

Aimee couldn't help but find this woman creepy as she hadn't broken eye contact the whole time she was speaking and had a constant cheerful smile plastered on her face like it had been painted on that morning with the overdone make-up she also sported.

"That would be great thank you… Jenna" she replied spying the woman's name tag.

Jenna called one of the burly looking security guards that had been walking around and asked him to show her to Doctor Chase's office. The man just grunted and shrugged non-committedly before nodding his head in the direction they should head and taking off at a quick pace, seeming not to care if Aimee was following or not.

When they reached the door to the office with the plaque saying Dr. A. Chase the security guard just nodded to Aimee and turned to leave, going back to where he had come from she assumed. Aimee knocked on the door and was answered with a soft reply she could not discern.

"Doctor Chase?" she asked as she opened the door and peered around it with slight trepidation.

"Ah, you must be Miss Montgomery please come and take a seat!" came the voice of a woman who was sitting behind the large wooden desk situated directly across from the door to the room.

"Please call me Aimee, I don't think I actually qualify for such formalities to be honest Doctor," Aimee replied as she walked further into the room and took a seat in one of the two chairs that were in front of the desk.

The older woman smiled and a few strands of her blond hair fell into her face, she quickly brushed them away and returned her gaze to the young woman sitting in front of her. This girl seemed too young for all of the things Sadusky had proudly said about her but if Abigail Chase new anything; it was to never judge a book by its cover.

"Well Aimee, as you can guess my colleagues and I would like to get this done as quickly as possible. It's not exactly a common find and as soon as we get your input we will know what further action needs to take place. I would love to inform you on everything right now but no others in the archives actually know about it so until we get to the secure room I'm afraid I shall have to keep you in the dark."

Aimee nodded, she wasn't exactly keen on going into things blind but she could understand why the issue would need to be kept somewhat secret so she wouldn't question Doctor Chase on it just yet.

"That's fine Doctor Chase, I gathered that from the need for my involvement alone. Common sense would tell me that this is being kept under wraps."

Doctor Chase nodded and stood, closing the file she had been working on before walking to the door with Aimee following, "My colleagues are already downstairs waiting so if you'd follow me we can go and get this started."

The two women walked through a maze of halls and down many stairs before Aimee found herself in a basement area that although seemed to be abandoned also looked to be kitted out in what seemed to be quite up to date technological equipment.

"This area of the archives hasn't been used in over forty years," Doctor Chase told her as she weaved through a few corridors, "It isn't monitored as it's not even on the archives blueprints anymore so we concluded that this would be the safest place to 'set up shop' if you will."

"Makes sense, nobody ever comes down here. As long as you're discreet with your visiting patterns you could house anything down here for an undetermined amount of time and nobody would be even suspicious."

Doctor Chase turned to look at the younger girl with an impressed smile and a look of thought on her face. She was right not to underestimate the girl on first glance, there was definitely more than meets the eye to this one.

"Indeed you could," she turned to a heavy looking metal door and opened it to reveal the room she and her associates had seemingly been working out of, "Miss Montgomery, I would like you to meet my colleagues on this matter, Professor Benjamin Gate and-"

"Riley?"

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**A/N: **_So…._

_What do we think?_

_Anybody got any guesses as to what Aimee's "area of expertise" is?_

_Let me know all your opinions and idea's in a review!_

_Stay tuned,_

_**Elianna**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: Sooooo, here's chapter four for you guys. So this chapter is short because I didn't really have any time to write a long chapter for you guys, sorry about that! Again, not too much in this I just want to get the story on the right track but at least we have a bit of Riley in this one!**_

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"Ok so I can definitely say she's an adult."

"She?" Abigail asked.

"Yes, definitely female but young adult. Early twenties by my estimation. She has a lot of old injuries that haven't healed properly, a sure sign of abuse by either a boyfriend or father. The fractures and breaks I see would be too difficult for a female to make unless they had help – which is also a possibility so it can't be ruled out."

"You're the specialist? You? Aimee?" Riley stuttered from his perch on an old metal desk in the corner of the room. He was in shock, when the door opened for Abigail and the osteology specialist he had never entertained the thought that the beautiful young woman he had met earlier in the week would be on the other side.

"Yes Riley. Me. Aimee. Now there are marks on her clavicle and some of her ribs that indicate knife wounds caused by a serrated blade. Due to that my conclusion of cause of death would be a fatal stab wound to the chest that most likely cut the aorta and she would have bled to death."

"So a twenty year old girl who had been abused in the past was stabbed to death?" Ben asked slowly as if trying to comprehend what the girl was saying. They had found the body or rather skeleton in an antique travel trunk they found on a small treasure hunt and immediately called Agent Sadusky. Sadusky knew the police would chalk it down to a murder in the time of the trunks last use and close the file or maybe even arrest Ben himself so he had put them in touch with Aimee.

Aimee nodded with a sad smile on her face, "As much as I wish I could say otherwise that's exactly what I'm saying. But these bones aren't old, certainly not as old as that trunk you found it in, I'd say this girl has been dead maybe five to ten years? Not long at all."

She looked over at Riley to see his reaction. He was looking at the bones with a look of pure sympathy. Sympathy for the poor girl who was murdered so violently, sympathy for the girls family who probably had no clue where there daughter was or that she had passed away.

"So, what do we do now." He asked quietly, unsure of where to go from there. This information just made everything that more serious.

"I'll tell you what you do. Put the bones back in the box. You didn't touch them with bare hands did you?" Aimee asked with a serious tone to her voice, with the shaking of everyone's heads she continued, "Right so you go to the police. You told me nobody knows you did this treasure hunt right? So tell the police you only just found it and called them straight away. Don't let them know anything. Keeping the skeleton and not informing them is a serious crime, like hugely illegal, and they _will_ arrest you if they find out. You comply with everything they ask ok? Don't give them any reason to doubt you and do not let them know I was involved."

The other three occupants of the room nodded their heads at the young woman who was standing in front of them like an army general directing their troops.

"Knowing Sadusky the way I do, I know he'll have his own private investigation going once he hears my information for himself and judging by the way we met I'm assuming he'll help you guys out too. This crime will be solved. Be it by the police or Sadusky's private team so just tackle this the way you would if Sadusky hadn't told you to keep quiet, ok? Let the cops handle it the way they want and we'll find out through Sadusky what happens."

The room grew quiet as Aimee who was the only one wearing gloves carefully packed the bones back into the trunk they were found in.

"Oh, there's another thing to tell old Pete." She muttered to herself as she went about the morbid task.

"What? What else did you find?" Abigail asked quickly, wondering if they had left any evidence of their secrecy behind that the police could find.

"The flesh was already gone before the bones were in this trunk. There's no evidence of a full body being in here, no decaying flesh or anything, no foul smell of a rotting corpse. Whoever killed this girl removed all flesh from the bones. The most likely cause was he or she boiled it off because there are no marks on the body that would suggest it's been cut off."

"Oh my god I'm gonna be sick!" Riley moaned loudly, dry heaving as he bent over the side of the desk he and now Ben had been seated on.

"It's gruesome alright, I'm sorry you guys had to find this. I know treasure hunting can be relatively harmless. What I just don't get is why Sadusky would hush this up… Why not report it immediately? That man always has a secret motive."

When Aimee finished the four left the room silently, Abigail and Ben first meeting at the door and joining hands before exiting the room. Aimee and Riley went next and locked eyes as they reached the door. She smiled a sweet yet morose smile at him before bowing her head and walking silently from the room.

"Hey! Aimee!" he called as he took off quickly after her, "there's obviously a story here right? Like how you know Sadusky and all the bone knowledge and stuff right? I mean, you told me you were a writer. Were you lying to me?"

She stopped short and turned swiftly to face him an alarmed look on her face, "Oh God no Riley! I didn't lie to you I swear I am a writer! I would never lie to you… I like you too much to do that. But there are certainly things you don't know about me. Things I don't usually tell a guy I've technically just met."

"How about I buy you a coffee? And you can tell me your story then. And tell me how you know our friendly neighbourhood FBI agent."

"Ah. Now there's a story. I don't know about you guys but me and Sadusky… it's dysfunctional to say the least."

"So… coffee?"

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_**A/N: There you go guys. **_

_**What do you think of Aimee now?**_

_**Let me know what you think in a review please. I don't wanna start holding my chapters hostage for reviews but could you guys please let me know what you think? I wanna know if you like the direction I'm going in or how you feel about my characters (and there will be more).**_

_**Thanks for reading!**_

_**Stay tuned,**_

_Elianna._


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey there... long time no update... (hides under desk).**

** I. Am. So. Sorry.**

** I know it's been over a year. All I can really say is that college kicked my ass and kicked writing right out of my life completely. Buuuuut. I AM BACK! I make no promises of regular chapters or updates or anything because CLEARLY I CAN'T KEEP THEM! But I will finish this story if it takes me until my dying breath at age 98 to do so, ok? (I plan on living a long life...)**

**Just a message to everyone who reviewed and followed while I was gone. You. Are. Awesome.**

**I warn you guys that this chapter is heavy on the info and definitely not my favourite but hang in there with me until I get back into the swing of these two please? Ok good. **

* * *

They were in the same coffee shop they had first met in, sitting at the same table Aimee had taken up residence that day. They hadn't spoken to one another since they left the archives and had somehow both subconsciously known where they would end up. Their drinks had been delivered to the table about five minutes before and they had still yet to utter a word to each other. Then Aimee opened her mouth.

"I don't even know where to start to be honest. Just know that I never lied to you Riley, I swear. I am a writer, that's my job. I just didn't exactly elaborate on my past yet, which frankly I don't think I had to. I mean as much as I like you, I barely know you Riley Poole so blabbing my whole life story wasn't really on the cards just yet and you probably don't even want to hear -"

"Aimee."

"it anyway. It would have totally turned you off, not that I turned you on! Oh God! That did not come out right! I mean it wouldn't have helped the situation and-"

"Aimee."

"you never would have spoken to me again, I'm actually surprised you're speaking to me know I mean I just had some dead chicks head in my hands and you've still asked me for coffee! Oh now I'm just making it worse! I am so sorry Riley for everything I-"

"Aimee!" Riley half shouted, trying to finally get the panicking woman's attention. Her head snapped up from where she had been staring at her cup of hot chocolate since it had arrived and looked into his eyes, "I'm not mad at you. Just pretty darn confused, and I know we weren't exactly at the DMC stage of this… whatever this is… so stop freaking out! That's my job missy! Just maybe fill me in on a few things? Like how you know Sadusky for one."

She sighed and slumped back in her chair, relaxing from her previously tense position bent over her mug, "I guess that's a good place to start but first, what the hell is a DMC?"

Riley raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? You don't know DMC? Deep Meaningful Conversation?"

"I have never heard anyone say that before in my life, and I'm a writer! But it seems to me like we're about to have our own little DMC so we may as well get comfortable here." She replied and pulled her legs up into the chair and into a more comfortable position resting one arm on the arm of the chair, the other balancing her mug on her knee.

"I'll start with Pete. Basically he used to date my Mom."

"Wait. What?!" Riley interrupted her.

"Yeah, he's not my Dad but he was the only male human that was ever around when I was growing up so he might as well have been. He didn't even like her really, it was a job. FBI stuff. My Mom was a bad lady and the FBI was after her for so many counts of fraud they made it this big operation. When I was six years old she brings home Pete, her new beau, to move in with us. Really I was lucky he was who he was because she could have brought home any guy off the street. He was with us for almost nine months before they actually had conclusive evidence and sent her to jail. I was seven at that stage."

"What happened to you when they took your Mom away?" Riley asked quietly, Aimee didn't seem upset talking about this but he didn't want to bring up any bad memories for her.

She just smiled and ran her chipped nail polish covered hand through her hair before taking a sip of her drink, "I would have gone into care, but my Mom had an older sister who was willing to take me in. She was a lot older than my Mom, over fifty when I went to stay with her but she actually cared about me – something my own mother never seemed to do. To this day I still call her Nana after the dog from Peter Pan that took care of the little kids, I now realise it's slightly insulting but she doesn't mind it."

"I hadn't really had the best school experience up to that point because my Mom didn't care to bring me most of the time but once I started to attend regularly my teachers noticed I picked everything up extremely quickly. Nana started doing extra work with me at home and taught me things from the other grades as best she could from then on. She brought me to this special school to have me tested when I was nine and they said I tested at the level of a sophomore in high school. She wanted to have me start attending that school but there were no scholarships and she couldn't afford it herself."

Riley interrupted her again, "So you just went back to normal school, even though you were smart enough to be in high school?" he questioned looking at her intensely, listening closely to her story.

"Yeah, Pete had kept in contact with my Nana though and after he heard about the school he started researching all he could about it. He would come to visit every year on my birthday and when he came for my tenth instead of giving me a card or a present he gave me this A4 envelope with all these papers inside. He had paid tuition for me to go to that school and put my name down to start that coming year, all that was needed was for Nana to sign the papers."

"So I went. And I got my high school diploma when I was thirteen and started college that same year. That's where all the bone stuff comes in."

"Wow! So you're like a genius?!" Riley spluttered through a mouthful of his coffee, "I must attract people who are a million times smarter than me, like a really dumb magnet."

Aimee reached across the table and grabbed his free hand, squeezing it hard and with a stern look in her eye she said, "Riley Poole don't you ever say anything like that again! Everyone excels in their own way! I may be intellectual but let me tell you sports and physical tasks are definitely not my forte, I tripped over thin air on the way to the archives today in front of a group of tourists my coordination is that bad. You are amazing with computers and technology Riley, I read your book and let me tell you the things you can do are amazing! That's your thing Riley, that's your genius. So don't ever let me hear you say you're not smart again! You. Are. Awesome. Riley Poole."

She had kept her hand gripping his and the way their eyes had been locked the entire time she said this made Riley feel like she was looking down into the depths of his very being, her word were nothing he hadn't heard before from family members but were so heartfelt he had stopped breathing for a second.

Letting the air he had been rush out in a long sigh he stuttered a bit, still gazing into her icy grey orbs, "Eh. Uh. Thanks. I mean… Yeah."

She giggled and let go of his hand moving to take another sip of her drink, "Sorry, I really hate when people put themselves down and it can be a little intense, people need to remember that everyone is different and has different talents and it annoys me when people think less of others because they aren't exactly the same as them. Anyway, shall I get back to the biography of Aimee Montgomery?"

"Yeah, I wanna hear about this thirteen year old college student. That even sounds weird just to say the words!"

"Well it was even weirder living it, trust me. I ended up being awarded a scholarship and I studied forensic pathology until I was seventeen, Nana came with me of course – I was only thirteen when I started. The reason Pete called me in on this is because I actually didn't finish school for it. Not in a self-centred or cocky way but I pretty much learned everything I needed to and I could easily have a doctorate now, but I just realised that wasn't what I really wanted my life to be. I didn't want to spend my days poking people's dead bodies and trying not to think of their families. Don't get me wrong I'm really interested in it and I did love it while I was there, but in the long run it just wasn't for me. So I reapplied for another scholarship at another school and now here I sit with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing."

She looked up at him through her thick lashes to see his mouth slightly open in awe. She quickly looked back down into her nearly empty mug and a blush covered her cheeks. Riley just stared for a moment before coming back to his senses.

"Wow, Aimee that's amazing. I mean…Wow! Just wow." He really couldn't find any words.

"I know it's weird Riley, don't worry. I am a weirdo but I don't see that as necessarily a bad thing. Ok, I went to college young. Ok, I went to college twice. Ok, I'm twenty-five and my second round of college ended three years ago but you know what? I can live my life now knowing that I pursued what I wanted and when that didn't suit me I took on plan b instead of settling for something I didn't enjoy. And plan b worked out pretty good if I do say so myself."

Riley reached over the table and took both of her hands in his; looking straight into her eyes, blue met grey and he spoke her own words back to her.

"You are awesome Aimee Montgomery."

* * *

**If you made it this far to read this... THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME!**

**Please review to let me know how you feel and what you think!**

**-Elianna**


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